Intertwined Truths
Intertwined Truths is a side story taking place some time after the events of Fragile, focusing on Rinato Dormi, also known as "Lapis Lazuli", and her ventures once getting a mysterious text message. It can be found [https://www.storytellerscircle.com/threads/intertwined-truths.5206/ here].' Characters * Exe * Gnar * Kazuya Minegishi * Lambdadelta * "Mastermind" Add * Neopolitan * Rinato Dormi * Rose * William Owen Herondale Story Details ''"I fell... ... and fell... ... hoping it would come to an end. I watched... ... and watched... ... hoping to prevent someone's death. I wished... ... and wished... ... hoping to create a miracle." '''Taciturnity Waking up from another sudden nap while aboard a train, Lapis questions on why exactly she had been sleeping so often as of lately, especially when she supposed to be a Half-Alive, or in simpler terms, undead. She also notes that this occurs much more after the strange vision she received of a girl's death at the hands of the Blood Institute. However, she tries to distract herself from these thoughts by thinking of how she was going to make dinner for herself, Abel, and Gnar for the upcoming night, having gone out to buy the groceries for this and now walking back to the apartment. Out of nowhere, she receives a strange text message that only greets her "hi" and nothing else, to which she ignores dismissively. Yet, the same person messaged her, telling her not to ignore them and that they happened to know her by her old bounty hunter name, "Lapis Lazuli." This gets Lapis's attention, prompting her to question the person on how they know this. All she got in response is that a "little girl" told them, and leads to the mysterious person telling Lapis to meet them. While Lapis is doubting the reliability of this sender, she is drawn in by the fact that this person happens to know of Lapis's recent vision of the "miracle-giver"'s death, and wishes to help her against the people that did this, which is the Blood Institute. From there, Lapis agrees to meet with this person the next day, and continues her walk home to prepare the dinner she had planned. Telegraph Later that same day, Lapis continues to think on who was the person sending her those text messages beforehand, but stops her thought process on this as Abel returns to the apartment after going to school. Unveiling the dinner surprise, both of them began to eat while they both shared some brief comments to each other as a couple. During this, Lapis receives another text message that is almost like the earlier ones that she received, but she noticed that this text message talked about how lovely their dinner was. With the addition of a photo that depicted Lapis and Abel laughing at the dinner table, Lapis is immediately put on edge of this, worries Abel in the process. Luckily she was able to lie her way out of getting Abel involved, and soon after that, they both share a kiss and spend the rest of the day together. Some time before she would sleep again for the day, Lapis finds another text message that warns her to watch her back, taking that as a warning of what she would have to expect for the next day, where she would meet with the mysterious person sending her text messages in the first place. Tumult The next day, Lapis would wait at the desired place of her meeting with this mysterious person, who soon texts her that they'll be there right away. In the case of an emergency, Lapis had brought along her pistol and army knife, and decides to restrain herself from using her crystal powers due to being in public. However, she gets another text from this time a completely different sender, warning to keep an eye out for her back. Heeding the warning, she looks behind herself to see that there was a lone konteipou candy on the ground, and by noticing it flash once with magical energy, Lapis throws herself out of the way as more of the explosive candy was being thrown into the mix. The sender that gave her the warning soon messaged her that her attacker was in the air, and that they'll try to deter the attacker away from Lapis. As Lapis evades every explosion meant to hit her, she notices that her attacker is dressed up peculiarly... almost like a little girl dressing up as a princess. Unknown to her, but her attacker happens to be the Witch of Certainty, Lambdadelta. During the attempts of not being blown up, Lapis realizes that some of the explosions had caused a road overpass to fall apart, prompting her to sprint out of there and use her crystal powers as a last resort. To ensure that she was able to avoid the explosions, Lapis would crystallize the magic candies, unintentionally causing a frag grenade effect that catches the attacker offguard. Seeing that this attacker was after her, Lapis would go and try to attack the girl to be over with this. Unfortunately, Lapis triggers a trap by doing this, causing the girl's "decoy" to explode into a black hole. As Lapis accepts her fate of dying this way, another person appears and manages to take her out of there with the help of time-related magic. Her rescuer apparently does not talk, sending another text message to Lapis in order to communicate with her, saying that she was "on time." Realizing that this was the original person that was texting her for this meeting and not to annoy her, Lapis goes to question her rescuer on what they had to share for her. Traverse Upon meeting her rescuer, Lapis first learns that this person is named Neo, and that she doesn't seem to talk all that much. Remembering that they were attacked by a magically enhanced foe, Lapis pressures Neo to share her information fast before they can be possibly ambushed again. With their possibly short time of peace, Neo begins to talk about the Blood Institute and their progress, and mentions of a kidnapping that had been planned and operated by the Institute. It's then revealed that the kidnapped target is the current hold of the Sin of Wrath, Nemesis Sudou. Mentioning of her associate, Neo also relays the information that an organization called the Healing Church had been supplying the Institute with blood samples as the Institute while it supplies the Church with more armed fighters and weapons. Both Neo and her associate speculate on the possibility that the Institute intends to experiment with both the blood samples and the Sin of Wrath's power. Taking that all in, Lapis asks on who Neo's associate is, but all she gets in response is that her associate is from the Metaworld, the Witch of Time Crona. Neo also reveals to Lapis that she had been in two Murder Game events, and that her associate had been filling her curiosities of the multiverse. Now planning on what to do next with Lapis's help, Neo shows that she has Kakeras filled with Crona's magic, allowing her to do the time techniques from earlier. She says that they can travel to a desired dimension that Crona had interests in, and that the Institute could be conducting their experimentation there. With the possibility of learning on what the Institute was truly going to do and being able to stop them to being able to decipher her strange dreams once and for all, Lapis agrees to come along with Neo, also mentally commenting that the Kakera looks similar to her crystals generated from her powers. Once they appear in the dimension that they had to do their investigations, Neo stays behind to use another Kakera, which is colored purple, to see if there were strange readings in this dimension. However, Lapis is able to pick off the essence of demons below their location, prompting her to go off towards the nearest tower of the area and entering it. Upon entering, Lapis would see a plasma sword in the nearby armory inside, she decides to take it for herself as she was only armed with a pistol and an army knife. Sprinting into the center of the tower's interior, she notices a horde of demons appearing here, harboring a strange yet powerful demonic essence that is much more threatening than usual . With her knowledge of what Neo had told her about, Lapis comes to the conclusion that this was related to the blood samples, the Sin of Wrath, and the possibility of the Institute conducting horrid experiments to make these demons. She wasn't along here, as she happened to run into two locals, hearing their names to be Add and Rose. With their combined efforts, they are able to neutralize and contain the threat of this particular demon horde, and just in time for Neo to catch up to them. Checking the rotting demon corpses, Neo confirms with the help of the purple Kakera that these demons were infected with blood that had the Sin of Wrath inside of them. Tradeoff Upon confirming the involvement of the Sin of Wrath being here and that the Blood Institute is most likely the responsible one for this, both Add and Rose are curious about the whole situation but are told by Lapis and Neo that they weren't needed for this. Before they leave the tower, Add tells them that similar demonic activity has been witnessed to be occurring at the Lanox region, and that they should check that out if they were willing to. Arriving at an abandoned factory building in Lanox, Neo and Lapis split up, Lapis taking the interior of the factory building. Investigating the interior, she runs into a man who happened to be planting a catalyst that spawned the wrath-infested demons in the first place. Determined to kill off the Institute member right away, Lapis attempts to attack him first, which is soon blocked by the man. As they share and deflect several blows, the man reveals that he knows about Lapis, which is no surprise to her as she expected that the Institute had their recruits warned of her, the only member to successfully defect from the Institute. The man gains the upper hand by using magic that amplified his speed, slashing into her back. However, Lapis manages to swipe her leg at his legs, causing him to fall from the loss of balance, and tries to shoot him in the head. He manages to get out of the way in an unusually fast pace, which confirms her thoughts about some sort of a speed spell. As Lapis began to use her crystal powers to even the fight, and then eventually asking him about his standing in the Institute. At first she feels the same content towards the Institute when compared to this man, but then reminds herself that she had to try and kill him anyways. During their clashes, the man cuts Lapis's long ponytail off, suddenly enraging her in the fight. In a blind rage, she did not realize that the man had attempted to pull her out of the way of something, and soon both of them were consumed by a blinding light. 'Turmoil' Finally back on track after her detour into another Murder Game, Lapis decides to go and infiltrate the Blood Institute headquarters to kill Exe. She could've waited to retrieve support from Neo, but she knew there wouldn't be any time left with what her archnemesis had planned. Upon entering the building used for the Institute's HQ, Lapis takes note that someone or something has already torn the place apart, but treads onwards regardless. Drawing close to Exe's office, Lapis stops for a moment under the feeling that presence probably responsible for all of the damage had left the area, but continues to enter the office. A bullet narrowly misses her head, and Lapis is face-to-face against Exe in a stare down. Tenacity Moments following the missed bullet, both Lapis and Exe take their fight out onto the courtyard. The fight is even until Lapis makes a reckless advance that allows Exe to use her projected weapons to dismember Lapis's left hand off. Right after, the rest of the projected weapons are used to pin Lapis to the wall, allowing Exe to prepare for the final blow. Before that, Lapis puts out her thoughts right at Exe under the impression that she was going to actually die. However, Exe reveals under all of that that she did not send the order for Lapis in the past to go kill her brother, Blake. This puzzles Lapis greatly, prompting her to ask on who would know about Lapis's "condition" and the Seven Deadly Sins to Exe, who then replies with the fact that she had already gotten rid of that person who informed her. Just before Exe would go on to finally kill Lapis with a Wrath-infused bullet, time is altered by a mysterious girl in blue, and allows Lapis to escape at the cost of this girl taking the bullet for her. Trivia *This side story takes place alongside Intertwined Lies. *Thus far, all of the chapter titles start with the letter "T''," most likely to relate with the title of the side story,"Intertwined ''Truths." Category:Side Stories